Allie Comet, a 17-year old senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, and Kevin Zhou, a 16-year old junior from Monte Vista High School in Danville, California, were honored by Caroline Kennedy and other members of President Kennedy’s family during the May 16, 2005 Profile in Courage Award ceremony for their prize-winning entries in the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest for High School Students.
The annual Profile in Courage Essay Contest invites students from across the nation to write an essay about a political issue at the local, state or national level and an elected official in the United States who is acting courageously to address that issue. The contest is a companion program of the Profile in Courage Award. The essay contest is sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and generously supported by Fidelity Investments.
Allie Comet’s winning essay (doc) described the political courage displayed by Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. of Atlanta, Georgia, who was called upon by President Kennedy to testify in support of the groundbreaking civil rights legislation he was urging Congress to enact. Kevin Zhou’s winning essay (doc) described the political courage of Humboldt County, California District Attorney Paul V. Gallegos who challenged the environmental practices of Pacific Lumber Company, the region’s largest and most influential private-employer, committing what many people believed would be political suicide.
This year, 2,459 students submitted essays from across the nation, including all fifty states, Puerto Rico, and overseas American schools in Guam, France, and Korea.
Fidelity first began supporting the national essay contest in 2001, and has helped to extend the program by promoting the contest and by providing technical assistance for the development and management of the contest website